I know folks who can walk a cross country course just once and put in a good ride.  But that's not me and for a big event like Bromont I really need some extra time.  I walked the course 4 times between Wednesday and Saturday morning.  I spent lots of time at the first water, struggling to figure out what my line would be.  If you walked it directly it was a 5 and a half.  Dropping big into water I did not want a half stride… Eventually Mikki and I came up with a 5 stride line that we both liked and I knew I could ride confidently.  There was a left hand corner 4 strides to another left hand corner.  We'd been having trouble with left hand corners, so I spent more time there really thinking and focusing on how I would ride that.  What I expected Rowan's reaction to be, and what I would do if I didn't like how she came into it. There were also 2 big Weldon's Walls on course.  I've never had a stop at one, but as they have gotten bigger, Rowan has been sucking back.  I was determined to make sure that I would give her a really strong, confident ride to both.  I do lot's of visualization.  So that when I get there, I'm ready. 

Saturday dawned overcast and rainy.  But at least it was cool.  I wasn't riding until almost 11am, so I had the morning to finalize my studs, check on footing and yes, visualize my ride one more time.  By the time I headed over to the start box the rain had stopped.  We were ready.  I got my final count down and got a beautiful start out of the box, right on the money.  Mikki had told me to really ride at the first couple fences, go like crazy at the second one.  Put Rowan on notice that we are on cross country.  Do not slow down at all!  So I tried, but Rowan propped and spooked at it - goofy girl.  But I think the plan worked because after that she seemed more focused and ready to listen.  Which is a really good thing, because fence 4 was the first big combination (a,b,c).  It was a big rampy fence on a deceptively steep hill, followed by a 90 degree turn to a two stride table combination.  Did I mention the deceptively steep hill?  We jumped part 'A' beautifully, but then overshot our line to B and C.  Lucky for me I kept Rowan straight through the turn and she jumped us out of the combination.  Whew. Go! Go! Go!  No time to waste. (we had been slow at our last event and I really wanted to improve our time here).  The next couple of fences rode really nicely and then we were heading up hill to the next big challenge, the coffin.  It was a skinny log; 2 strides downhill to the ditch; 2 strides angled off to the left to the skinny log out. I was pretty sure that if I kept my body back and kept my eyes up on the c element and kept Rowan's hind end engaged through the uphill and into the first fence and kept my hands soft  - that Rowan would go nicely through. (hmmmm…there's a lot going on here…… no wonder these things are so tough).  And yes! That is what happened. I did my job and she flowed nicely through.  Off we galloped across the long up sloping hill which takes so much out of the horses toward the next big fence the first Weldon's wall.  A very big ditch right in front of a max wall with brush on top.  I decided that Rowan was going to need some extra help here, so I went to my stick at the base.  I wanted to use this as a schooling opportunity, to make sure that she jumped it out of rhythm and in stride.  Good Girl!!!  Go! Go! Go!  Now off to the first water.  Rowan jumped really nicely here, I found exactly the line I wanted, but she didn't jump in very big, so we got a 6 in stead of the planned 5 strides, but it rode ok.  ( and good to know for the future)..  The corners were next and rode a little long.  It seemed like all that uphill was catching up to us.  But off of fence 17 Rowan caught a second wind and sailed over 18, the monster brush box out of a beautiful big stride.  Ok, I was grinning like a fiend.  Everything else on course rode as planned.  Through the last stretch I'm pushing for speed.  We are heading for the last fence, a big box framed by a giant, gold colored horse shoe…  We sail over and then we are done. 

I'm trying to breath.  Arianna is screaming at me "Unclip!  Unclip! Unclip! Unclip!"  it took her at least four tries before I heard and then realized I was about to dismount and would have set off the point 2 air vest.  Thank you Arianna!  Then the team is there, pulling off tack, lots of hugs, sponging Rowan.  The vet is checking her vitals…  I can't believe we are done. And only 26 seconds slow - a huge improvement for us and I'm so proud of my pony.  The vet box right after cross country is really intense.  You need to get your horse cooled and make sure that their legs look ok and get studs out, etc. Happily we had lots of folks with us up at Bromont.  Arianna was the groom extraordinaire!  (I forgot to mention, that for dressage and stadium she did the most beautiful quarter marks on Rowan :-)  we also had my college friend Vicki and both Marc and Dan were ready with ice, water, sponges and scrapers.  So thank you to everyone for all the help!  In what seemed like no time we were cleared to go by the vet.  The guys went to find extra ice and I took Rowan back to the barn to get her legs iced down."